surprise campout!

This camping trip was supposed to be for just Paul and his scouts, but at the last minute, the other leaders canceled. The rule with scouts is to have at least two adults, so after calling every single person Paul could think of who might be able to come with, and them all saying, "nope.", I asked if we could just go with. Paul was excited and the kids were already fed and getting ready for bed, so we put them in their jammies, grabbed some other camp-y things and jumped in the car. After picking up the two scouts who were going on the trip, and driving the three-ish hours, we arrived at Blood Mountain pretty late at night. The boy scouts set up their tent, and then helped Paul set up our monster of a tent.

The kids, who did not sleep on the long drive up, and were especially tired from the hike from the parking lot to the "pioneer camping" site, were pretty cranky until they finally fell asleep. The scouts and leaders from another troop met up with Paul and his scouts a little after we got there and they stayed up roasting marshmallows and talking and having a good time. I was trying to snuggle my cranky, not-so-happy campers.

In the morning, my kids were much happier. We had a nice warm and snuggly night, with only one chilly potty break for Hawken.  The boy scouts started a fire and breakfast cooking began (both over the fire and on a propane burner).

I love this picture of Lullaby. She was totally into the camping thing. Crawling around and getting dirty and flirting food away from all the boys, she was in heaven.

A few pics of the scouts and changing trees and camping... (The trees on the drive were much prettier than the ones in our camping area. We saw deep reds, purples, oranges and yellows while driving, but no pics)

After a while, we all broke down the tents, hiked all the gear back down the trail, and loaded up the cars.

Since it was almost nap time and I had a loooong drive ahead of me, I took off then. Paul stayed with the boys and the other troop (since now there were enough leaders) and they hiked a rugged 7 mile hike up blood mountain (at the start of the Appalachian trail), which I was happy to skip.  It was a fun trip, and although very last minute, it worked pretty well. This was both Hawken and Lullaby's first camping experience.  Hawken would have stayed there forever, but I think Lullaby was happy to see her crib when we got home. :)

After we pulled into the driveway and checked the mail, we found that we got another fun Halloween card!  The fun just wouldn't end! :) The kids tore it open and of course it was filled with a million little stickers. Thanks dad! Really, they loved it and I loved the Halloween money. That bought Matix's costume this year, so THANKS!  Can you tell they hadn't had a bath in two dirty campy days?!